A short summary on the China – Central and Eastern European Tourism Coordination Centre

In the China – Central and Eastern European Countries' Economic Forum in November 2013 at Bucharest the Chinese party called upon Hungary to establish a cooperation platform in the field of tourism with the aim of increasing tourism cooperation between China and the Central and Eastern European Countries. The official opening of the China – Central and Eastern European Countries' Tourism Coordination Centre (the TCC) was in May 2014 in Budapest in the frames of the first High-level Meeting on Tourism Cooperation of China and the CEE countries.

High-ranking delegations from CEE countries were invited to the high-level meeting and NTAs and NTOs from the CEE region were called upon to join the co-operation on a voluntary basis.

The main aim of the cooperation is to increase the mutual tourism traffic between China and the CEE region. Presenting the CEE countries in China as one single destination may allow better visibility of our region in China and contribute to the rise in the number of Chinese tourist arrivals in Central and Eastern Europe.

China and CEEC

China is the fastest growing outbound travel market generating 100 million arrivals worldwide. At present most of the Chinese tourists to Europe arrive in Western and Southern European destinations (7.5 million in 2013.) Visiting Eastern and Central European destinations accounted for 33.5% of all European arrivals from China in 2013. Chinese tourists, with their high spending willingness, have lots of potential for the CEECs. At the first High-Level Meeting in May Mr Shao Qiwei*,Chairman to the Chinese National Tourism Administration, expressed his wish to increase the number of inbound Chinese tourists in the CEE region by 15% in the coming years. He emphasized the importance of developing new tourism products and routes, and using new channels of promotion, like a common CEE tourism website, in order to lure more Chinese travellers into the region.

*Mr. Shao Qiwei resigned from his office in October 2014. At present Mr. Li Jinzao acts as President of CNTA.

TCC's operation

The TCC operates within the frames of the Hungarian National Tourism Organization, Hungarian Tourism Ltd. The Centre's operational costs are borne by Hungary. The TCC is made responsible to represents the interest of the 16 CEE countries and China unbiasedly.

The Director of the TCCis Mr. Péter FARAGÓ, CEO of Hungarian Tourism Ltd. Presently 2 colleagues cater for the operational tasks of the TCC, Mr. Mihály ARANYOSSY, Headof InternationalCooperation Office and Ms Zsuzsa VINCZE, Manager of International Cooperation Office. You are welcome to contact us attcc@gotohugary.com

The main role of TCC is to contribute to developing and promoting the relations between CNTA and the 16 CE countries' tourism administration for the mutual benefit of the two regions.

The Action Plan of the tourism cooperation, discussed by the participants of the first high-level meeting in May 2014, defined the vision and mission and set the main goals, which the TCC is responsible to implement. The TCC wishes to reach these goals collaborating with the other participating countries and heavily relies on their valuable contribution.

How we work in TCC

TCC's main task is to become a coordinating body between China and the CEE region in the field of tourism. TCC wishes to act as an initiator and collector of all the knowledge accumulated in the region about China, share best practice, explore market niche, involve market players and other stakeholders for the mutual benefit of the participating countries, governments, authorities, tourism service providers and travellers. We believe that this kind of cooperation will also contribute to strengthening the cultural and economic ties between China and the CEE region.

In our daily work we rely on the contribution of all members of the tourism cooperation and as a national contact point, ask you to share with us matters of mutual interest and your ideas on how we can collaborate for the advancement of our common project.